Communicating with the Spirits

Mystics or Visionaries? Discernment of Spirits in the First Part of the Seventeenth Century in France

MYSTICS OR VISIONARIES? DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS IN THE FIRST PART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN FRANCE SOPHIE HOUDARD We are indebted to Henri Bremond for having rediscovered French spiritual texts of the first half of the seventeenth century and for having enlightened the activity, indeed even the activism of spiritualists within the movement of the Catholic Counter-reformation (Bremond, 1967). Indeed, this “century of saints” is marked by the rapid expansion of French mysticism, a sheer mystical invasion (to use Bremond’s terms) which particularly flourished in Gallican France until the increasingly determined hunt against quietism, during the absolute monarchy, provoked its progressive and definite dispersion. In France as in many other countries, the Catholic Counterreformation demands a new kind of professionalism on the part of clergymen (such as the creation of new religious orders and seminaries ) and, on the part of the laity, what we may call for lack of a better word, a sacralisation of the lay-state and of its social organization . In the straight and narrow path of Borromean ethics, spiritual associations and non-religious brotherhoods undertake the promotion of a civil religion where the spirit of reform must be on the level of interiority but also of social mutation (Prodi, 1985). Two examples will serve to delimit the topic of this article: on one hand, the elaboration of a new Christian city and the place it allots to good and bad angels and, on the other, the relationship between what is social, political and supernatural. The first example stems from a chronicle of Charles Borromeo’s solemn entry in Milan on September 23, 1565: 72 COMMUNICATING WITH THE SPIRITS He finally arrived in Milan where all his people awaited him with incredible eagerness; the city streets which he had to use had been prepared with a pomp of great solemnity; one could see triumphal arches in many places and doors decorated with symbols and eulogies of great lavishness [...] He was accompanied to the Church by the Duke of Albuqerque, Governor of Milan, a number of prelates, the Senate, Magistrates, the Nobility, and an infinite number of people [...] all showing a face and saying words which expressed unequalled joy and happiness; out of the enormous crowd thundered applauds [...] One could also hear, on another side, an appalling roar, cries from people tortured by spirits, bellowing like beasts, screaming and crying desperately as if the presence of the saintly archbishop were causing them some horrendous torment; this was noted by many as a cause for great marvel (Giussani, Vita, L.1, chap. 1, quoted by Paolo Prodi). This excerpt from the description of the triumphal entry of the archbishop of Milan shows two cities: on one side, a city which unites all the orders with equal enthusiasm and, on the other, the one which refuses this new social body, the city of howling beasts prey to spirits. Prey to good or to bad angels? Although the text doesn’t specify, the terms seem to suggest Satan’s rebellion against the new Borromean political triumph. Although the explicit goal of the written account of the archbishop of Milan’s entrance is undoubtedly to show his absolute victory over the devil’s authority, it seems more interesting to me to read it as the narrative of the split between the new Christian city, geographically and symbolically unified by social and spiritual links weaved by the pastoral, and the city of the possessed, of those who are the prey of extraordinary states gradually exiled by the new civility. The second example is an extract borrowed from the Life of Madame Acarie, this mystical league member (these terms are borrowed from Dagens, 1952, p. 120), stigmatized, visionary and extatic who, during the reign of Henri IV, organizes in her home one of those groups where both laymen and important members of the Church and the State endeavour to organize social discipline and MYSTICS OR VISIONARIES? 73 internal spirituality. Father André Du Val reports an episode about her which, to me, signifies the complex links between the civil world and the supernatural: At that time, there was a lady in Paris who came to see me and said to me, My Father, people say things about Madame Acarie, all they do is talk about her all around the city; is everything they say about her true? And since I had asked her what people were saying, she answered, People say...